Rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel for the first time in months on Saturday, prompting Israeli forces to strike back hours later at sites in southern Lebanon it said were linked to the militant group Hezbollah.
At least six people in Lebanon were killed in the Israeli bombardment and others wounded, according to statements from the Lebanese Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israeli military said it had launched a second round of attacks on Saturday night.
The attacks were the latest example of how the renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza was rippling across the Middle East. They also risk further disrupting the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents on both sides of the border who had fled more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The Israeli military said that it had shot down three rockets from Lebanon with no reports of casualties. The volley was the first rocket attack since Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a cease-fire that was brokered by the United States and France late last year.
Hezbollah denied involvement in the rocket fire, which followed Israel’s resumed offensive in Gaza this week against the Lebanese group’s Palestinian ally Hamas. Those Israeli attacks have already killed more than 600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who did not say how many were combatants.
After the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the Gaza war, the militant group’s allies across the Middle East began attacking Israel in solidarity. Last year, that escalated into a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah, in which Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s leadership and launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold.
The truce went into effect in late November and has largely held. Under the terms of the cease-fire, the Lebanese government is supposed to prevent armed groups like Hezbollah from attacking Israel from Lebanese territory.
Lebanese leaders appeared eager to head off any new escalation with Israel. The Israel-Hezbollah war killed about 4,000 people in Lebanon and more than a million people fled their homes, according to the country’s authorities. Tens of thousands were still displaced as of mid-March, according to the United Nations.
After the rocket fire on Saturday, Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, condemned what he called “attempts to drag Lebanon back into a cycle of violence.” He called on the committee charged with overseeing the cease-fire — including representatives from the United States and France — to prevent any violations that could threaten Lebanon.
The Lebanese Army said on Saturday that it had located and dismantled rocket launchers in southern Lebanon. The national military is a distinct force from Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia which has long wielded enormous political and military influence in Lebanon.
“Military units are continuing to take the necessary measures to control the situation in the south,” the Lebanese military said.
Israeli officials have expressed skepticism over whether the Lebanese military is up to the task of preventing attacks. And Israel has continued to bombard Lebanon despite the truce, arguing that it is cracking down on militants violating the cease-fire.
While the cease-fire initially stipulated a full Israeli withdrawal by late January, Israeli forces still control five points inside Lebanese territory. Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, said Israeli troops would remain there indefinitely to protect Israeli towns near the Lebanese border.
The truce requires the Lebanese government’s security forces to be the sole armed presence in southern Lebanon, but it is unclear to what extent Hezbollah has actually withdrawn its fighters and weaponry.
The resumed strikes in Gaza this week have brought attacks on Israel from at least one other Hamas ally.
That ally, the Houthi militia in Yemen — which, like Hamas and Hezbollah, is backed by Iran — has resumed firing ballistic missiles at Israel, sending hundreds of thousands of Israelis rushing for fortified bomb shelters. Israel’s aerial defense systems have intercepted the missiles.
Israeli leaders, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have said that they launched the renewed attack in Gaza in part to pressure Hamas to free more of the dozens of remaining Israeli and foreign hostages in the enclave. Hamas has argued that Israel is tearing up the cease-fire deal.
Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Mideast envoy, said that Israel and Hamas were “talking again” to try and solve the impasse in the negotiations. He made the remarks during an extended interview on Friday with the right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson.
The United States is now discussing how to demilitarize Hamas as part of a postwar settlement for Gaza, Mr. Witkoff said, adding, “That’s the big thing.”
“They need to demilitarize. Then maybe they could stay there a little bit, right? Be involved politically,” he said. “We can’t have a terrorist organization running Gaza.”
Mr. Witkoff said he believed that by resuming the fight against Hamas, Mr. Netanyahu was going “up against public opinion” in Israel — which Mr. Witkoff said broadly backed a deal to free the hostages.
Euan Ward contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad from Haifa, Israel.
